Society of Saint Polycarp: On the Evangelical-Catholic Ecclesiastical Polity

Sunday, January 4, 2015

On the Evangelical-Catholic Ecclesiastical Polity

We are to honor the emperor; this is an Apostolic teaching. We are to honor our Lord and King, with our lips and with our heart-perfused human bodies. Democracy is okay, temporally, although many a smart man has had his doubts about such ... including Plato, and surely Robespierre minutes before his head was lifted from his shoulders, by Dr. Guillotine's efficiency.   America's own evolving notions of equality, life and liberty have had their own acid-wearing effects on churchly behavior.   Many of us lack any respectable notions as to how to behave with fear and love, in the Presence of a saving King (eternity will correct this), or how to deal with the under-shepherd of the King's flock. All too often, the bites of sheep hankering to be lions or bears come in the form of what is excused as "ballots."

In the Smalkald Articles (IV.7; 1537), Dr. Luther fantasizes on the possibility of the pope coming to his senses, and rejecting any notion of being the supreme head of the Church "by divine right; that is, by divine command."   Perhaps,  Luther granted, such a head could better pummel the inevitable wacky sects and wolfish heretics; but such a head would first needs be "elected by the people, and it would remain incumbent upon their power and choice to change or depose this head (Kolb-Wengert translation, p. 308; Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2000)." Have a massive, empowering Supreme Voters Assembly, a royal priesthood, a holy nation wildly beyond any previous Oecumenical Council's extent.

And here, then, is the sorry rub: Yet "Christianity would not be helped in any way, and there would be even more sects than before, because they would not have to submit to such a head on the basis of God's command but rather as a matter of human good will."   But good will is in remarkably short supply, as short as peace treaties, on earth; Guillotine's ingenuity, unfortunately, is not.

The true Lutheran solution to this fleshly dilemma is this, from the Confessions themselves: 1) "the Church cannot be better ruled and preserved than if we all live under one head, Christ (SA IV.9)" and 2) "all the bishops -- equal according to the Office (although they may be unequal in their gifts) -- keep diligent together in unity of teaching, faith, sacraments, prayers, and works of love etc.." (SA IV.9; italic emphasis mine)

Dr. Luther goes on to quote St. Jerome, to effect that the priests at Alexandria "ruled the churches together in common, as the Apostles also did and afterwards all bishops throughout Christendom, until the pope elevated himself over them all." There is no immediate mention, here, of the elevating Donation of Constantine being an out-right fraud, and most slanderously attached to a pious bishop of Rome whom all Evangelical-Catholics laudably commemorate on the Sixth Day of the Christmastide. But then, we all know this from Sunday School. Or at least, from Melanchthon's Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (and footnote 32 of the same, penned by Kolb and Wengert, pp. 335-6).

The point is, in my opinion, that one should not place undue confidence in periodic Lutheran elections, or the products of such, since few angels of good will are punching the tabulating electronic buttons; that humble country parsons are quite the equals of district presidents, in Office and in divine rank (although perhaps unequal in personal gifts, and certainly of perks); and that we of the Church of Augustana ought to be on the same page when it comes to such things as "teaching, faith, sacraments, prayers, and works of love etc.."

What we teach and how we worship mattered to Dr. Luther. It matters to the Confessions, to which our preachers and celebrants have individually pledged their allegiances, in a vow to God.   Evidently, the simple priests/pastors of Alexandria long ago, ruled in common; and it seems reasonable that they shepherded also in a common way. How they "sacramented," and how they prayed, etc., etc., surely reflected the very Presence of the Lord among a gathered two or three or more, and not a Calvinistic concept of Christ "out there." I think there is a need to parley among the priests and bishops, openly and honestly, and decide if we can live up to the name Lutheran in faith, polity, practice, and ceremonies. I think the SA's own "etc.," above, covers those things quite nicely and very comprehensively. Anything less, when it comes to our behavior, is dancing a tango delusionally and living a lie.

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About our Society

The Society of St. Polycarp is made up of Lutheran clergymen and laity committed to the confessional, liturgical, sacramental, and spiritual renewal of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Since our Church's problems are not political, but rather spiritual, we pray God to grant us repentance, and seek no political aim. Members of the Society commit themselves to the following Rule.

The Rule
1. Members of the Society confess Holy Scripture to be "the pure, clear fountain of Israel" and also "the one true guiding principle," i.e., the sole norm or "judge, rule, and guiding principle" of the same (FC Ep. Comprehensive Summary, 7; FC SD Comprehensive Summary, 3). We rejoice in the tradition of the Holy Doctors and Fathers of the Church, in whom Christ kept His promise that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against (My Church)" (Mt 16:18), so that the Lutheran confessors could say that "the churches among us do not dissent from the catholic church in any article of faith" (AC Preface to XXII, 1, Latin). We reject all methods of interpretation that seek to understand the meaning of Scripture apart from the guidance of the Church, through which God gave us the Scriptures.

2. Members of the Society will promote the importance of daily prayer and meditation on Holy Scripture. Members will commit themselves to praying at least one of the daily offices, keeping fellow members as well as the Church Catholic herself in their prayers. The ideal use of the offices is in the corporate setting; however, the praying of the offices in private is to be carried out if there is no alternative.

3. Valuing Holy Absolution as "a voice from heaven" (Ap. XII, 40), members of the Society will avail themselves of the benefit of this sacrament, as well as promoting its use. Members will seek out father confessors of their own for regular and frequent private Confession and Absolution.

4. Members of the Society will promote the Sacrament of the Altar as the chief parochial service in the Church of the Augsburg Confession (AC XXIV, 34). Members will receive the Sacrament of the Altar often, as well as encourage others to receive it frequently, thereby restoring the traditional Lutheran understanding of the central place of the Sacrament in Lutheran worship. As the Lutheran Symbols assume the weekly celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar (AC XXIV, 34-38; Ap. XXIV, 1), members of the Society will promote this evangelical and catholic practice in their own parishes and in the work of the Society.

5. As the Sacrament of the Altar is the true Body and Blood of Our Lord that is truly present, distributed, and received (AC X, German), members of the Society are committed to the evangelical and catholic doctrine of closed communion, i.e., not admitting to the altar to receive the Holy Communion those who have not previously been examined and absolved (AC XXV, 1-2), let alone those of a confession of the Faith contrary to that of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

6. Members of the Society will promote the historic liturgies of the Church Catholic, since such liturgies shape pastoral practice and teaching that is consistent with the evangelical and catholic Faith as it has been handed down in Holy Scripture, the Ecumenical Creeds, and the Symbolical Books of the Church of the Augsburg Confession.

7. As the Lutheran Symbols confess the Blessed Virgin Mary to be "the pure, holy, and ever-virgin Mother of God" (Theotokos, Gottes Mutter), as well as "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" (Ap. XXI, 27; SA I, IV, Latin; FC SD VIII, 24), it is altogether fitting, proper, and consistent with the Faith of the Church Catholic to honor the Blessed Virgin in liturgical celebration. Members of the Society will seek to restore the traditional Marian feasts of the Church of the Augsburg Confession (i.e., the Feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, and Visitation) as a testimony of the grace of God through her, that we might imitate the Blessed Virgin in word and example, and in thanksgiving for the Incarnation of the Son of God through her humble submission to the will of God. Members of the Society will also promote the observance and celebration of saints' days and commemorations. This is wholly in keeping with the evangelical and catholic tradition of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, whose Symbolical Books acknowledge the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors (AC XXI, 1; Ap. XXI, 4-9).

8. As the Church of the Augsburg Confession understands herself as a part of the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, particularly as she exists in the West, members of the Society will take seriously the commitment to the proper ecumenicity this demands. Members will pursue dialogue with:
• Fellow Lutheran Christians to foster and promote Lutheran unity.
• Our separated brethren in the Roman Church, with which the Lutherans at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 clearly sought reconciliation.
• The Eastern Orthodox Church, following the example of the exchange between the Lutheran theologians of the University of Tübingen and Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople (1573-1581).
This reflects not simply the Lutheran commitment to the unity of all Christians, but ultimately the will of Our Lord Himself (Jn 17).

9. Members of the Society will make every effort to make a retreat once a year for the purpose of disciplined prayer and study, silence and reflection, as well as the celebration of the Sacrament of the Altar.

Conclusion
Following the example of our patron, members of the Society ultimately strive to be faithful to Our Lord, recalling His words to St. John the Theologian: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life" (Rev 2:10). Members also pray God's grace that we may be able to hand over to our posterity the tradition we have received as Lutheran Christians, and that we may be able to confess with our forebears at Augsburg that "nothing has been accepted among us, in teaching and ceremonies, that is contrary to Scripture or the catholic church. For it is manifest that we have most diligently been on guard so that no new or ungodly doctrines creep into our churches" (AC Conclusion, 5, Latin).